By
Cassimir Medford
Network World,
12/24/01
Standards
and tools might be immature, service coverage spotty,
client operating systems divergent, security a thorn
and costs unpredictable, but a wide cross-section of
enterprise users are embracing wireless data access.
Some network executives
are willing to endure the pain of early adoption in exchange for the competitive
advantages they say are inherent in wireless data access, especially the always-on
mobility. "The tools are still immature, and techniques are still changing,"
says Rick Rawlings, IS director at Ray & Berndtson, an executive search
firm in Fort Worth, Texas. Still, he suggests the firm's wireless project
has been well worth it. 
For one, sales partners
at the worldwide firm have been more than excited about using wireless access
to the company's principle application, SearchNet. Most readily exchanged
their Dell laptops for Compaq iPaq PDAs, Rawlings says, explaining that the
laptops were too big, took too long to boot and open applications, and made
it difficult for users to ensure privacy. The PDAs, on the other hand, let
partners use SearchNet discretely and are practically always on, getting partners to the information they need in the time it would take just to get to a laptop's logon screen. Plus, the always-on feature keeps the partners current in an industry that profits from change.
SearchNet runs on a Citrix thin client/server system, is integrated with Microsoft Outlook, uses an Oracle
9i database and features a candidate registration system. To provide wireless
access to it, Rawlings determined he needed to work with the Windows CE operating system because it could support the thin-client technology, with some customization, and the Oracle database. Palm OS could not handle the latter, Rawlings says.
The only additional element
Ray & Berndtson needed was synchronization software because it has not
yet found a carrier that can meet its coverage needs - the company has offices
in eight U.S. cities,Rawlings says. For now, partners synchronize information
with the company's server using tools from Synchrologic. They dial up
or use a connection cradle.
Ray & Berndtson recently
completed its staggered rollout of the wireless system, issuing iPaqs to about
80 sales partners. Each setup cost about $600. The company also will issue
each partner a Dell desktop, valued at about $2,000. "The desktop plus
the iPaq and all its accessories adds up to about half the cost of a standard
business-class laptop. Right there, the reallocation of our assets paid for
the transition," Rawlings says.
Legal motion
Like Ray & Berndtson,
Los Angeles law firm Paul, Hastings, Janofsky and Walker used its laptop refreshment
budget to transition to a wireless scenario. In its case, a critical application
has been adapted for use on the BlackBerry wireless handheld from Research
in Motion and made available to 700 attorneys and support staff.
The firm chose wireless
for almost the same reasons as Ray & Berndtson's. The attorneys
considered laptops overkill - 90% of those who had laptops used them exclusively
for e-mail. Now attorneys get e-mail, faxes and voice mail wirelessly via
a universal inbox on the BlackBerry. It's ideal because it doesn't
require synchronization with a host, says Mary Odson, the firm's CIO.
And it turned out to be
a good deal for IT. "Immediately upon issuing the BlackBerries, attorneys
gave their laptops back," Odson says. "That really helped our
[return on investment]. The money I would normally spend on refreshing laptops,
about $300,000, I set aside to purchase BlackBerries [for support staff and
researchers]," she notes.
Overall, the firm has reduced
its laptop budget and the attendant "toll-free" dial-in costs
by 30%, while its attorneys are more efficient and happier.
On the server side, the
costs are relatively modest. The base server configuration with a 20-user
license is about $3,000. Ongoing communications costs amount to approximately
$40 per month, per user.
And for the first time,
the firm will use a customer relationship management (CRM) application. It's
chosen the InterAction CRM application designed for the Blackberry by Interface
Software.
Harvard goes wireless
Repurposing applications
for wireless devices can pose more of a challenge than building wireless applications
from scratch, but Harvard Medical School rose to it. Starting this fall semester,
the school supports wireless Web access from all PDAs. Students and faculty
can get access to the entire curriculum, class and faculty evaluations, schedules
and events, and can share information via whiteboards. Doctors can write prescriptions
and access patient records and lab results.
The project is the brainchild of John Halamka, associate dean of
Harvard Medical School and CIO of CareGroup, an integrated delivery network
of six hospitals in the Boston area. "Doctors and medical students are very
mobile people so we wanted to give them accessibility to all the business and
educational processes and information they needed. I sent incoming students
a letter saying, 'Bring whatever device you have,'" Halamka says.
About 160 students arrived at school with 27 different models of PDAs.
"A browser solution allowed us to be device-neutral and standards-based. We also made it capable of synchronization and wireless communications," Halamka says. "We used a standard HTML set, JavaScript and [Secure Sockets Layer]."
Halamka used the M-Business Server from AvantGo, a San Mateo, Calif., developer of software that enables the integration of wireless systems with existing enterprise applications. "I had to make the decision as to how I was going to deliver content wirelessly. Am I going to write some sort of native application for every platform or find some sophisticated conduit?" Halamka says. "That's what AvantGo is - a platform-neutral transport medium to the Web. We can take all the Web content we have already developed, repurpose it and get it to any device."
The M-Business Server eliminates the need for complex and expensive code rewrites to accommodate the small footprint and attendant limitations of mobile systems. Arcstream, a wireless systems integrator in Watertown, Mass., worked with Harvard on the implementation.
Internal IT is maintaining the wireless setup.
"Our benefits are
the ability to transmit knowledge to any portable device via wireless or synchronization," Halamka says of the $250,000 wireless undertaking. "Students and faculty
have knowledge at the point of care, when and where they need it, to best
serve patients."
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